Plan your CS1 revision without turning planning into another job.
A simple Excel planner for structuring CS1 revision, including regular RStudio work alongside the statistical theory.
The IFoA recommends 200 study hours for CS1.
That is for the subject overall, not a target that needs to be squeezed into your final few weeks. I found tracking the recommended total useful because it stopped me underestimating how much time a subject or topic really needed.
200 hours overall
The planner keeps the official IFoA recommendation visible as a reference point.
Enter hours already done
Add your study hours completed so far rather than pretending every hour still needs to be done.
See the weekly pace
The sheet shows the average weekly pace that would take you to the benchmark over your chosen remaining weeks.
Source: Institute and Faculty of Actuaries recommended study hours.
Set it up in a few minutes.
- Choose 4 to 16 weeks. The weekly focus changes automatically.
- Add your study hours. Enter hours completed so far and what you realistically have available each week.
- Follow the weekly focus. Use it as a guide, not a rigid timetable.
- Update confidence and mistakes occasionally. The workbook is deliberately light on admin.
What the plan covers
Distributions, random variables, estimation, hypothesis testing, regression, glms, bayesian statistics and mixed exam practice.
RStudio / Paper B practice runs through the plan so you keep applying and interpreting the theory rather than treating R as a separate last-minute task.
A revision planner should save time, not consume it.
There are only four student-facing sheets: Start here, Weekly plan, Topic confidence and Mistake log. You do not need to log every question, every minute or every mark.
Download the CS1 planner.
Use it as a starting structure, then adapt the priorities to what your own question practice tells you.
- no sign-up
- no macros
- works as a lightweight weekly guide
- includes the IFoA study-hours benchmark
- independent resource, not official IFoA material
Before you download.
Do I need to complete all 200 hours during my chosen revision window?
No. The IFoA figure is an overall recommended study time for CS1. Enter the hours you have already completed and treat the remaining figure as context rather than a rigid requirement.
What if the suggested weekly pace is unrealistic?
Use that as a warning that you may need to prioritise more aggressively. The planner is there to make the workload visible, not to tell you to force an impossible number of hours into a week.
Is the planner official IFoA material?
No. It is an independent planning tool. Always check the current IFoA syllabus and exam guidance for the sitting you are preparing for.
Use the planner yourself, or bring the weak areas into a session.
If the planner shows where you are struggling but you are not sure how to fix it, we can focus a 1-to-1 session on exactly those areas.